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22 February 2019

Here's how it works: The Recent Releases chart brings together critical reaction to new albums from more than 50 sources worldwide. It's updated daily. Albums qualify with 5 reviews, and drop out after 6 weeks into the longer timespan charts.

ADM 2014 Half-Year Report: The Year Of The Underdog

Here we are, six months of 2014 behind us, and the ADM chart is topped exclusively by albums that have slid in under the mainstream radar

Plenty of big-name releases have left our critics unimpressed so
far. Coldplay, whose sixth album became the
highest selling album of 2014, find themselves with an ADM rating
of only 6.1. That's the 320th best rated album of the year so far.
Pharrell Williams, whose single has been in the UK
chart for every single week of 2014, finds his album in 281st place
here at ADM.

Of the 377 albums released in the last six months, The
Black Keys are placed 159th, Bruce
Springsteen 295th, Rick Ross 301st,
Kasabian 338th, and Lily Allen
360th. All big-selling, chart-topping major releases that have
disappointed, or even angered some critics.

With Robin Thicke, The Kooks,
Alt-J, Interpol and
Morrissey all slated for July-December, could one
of them buck the trend?

And so to the top end. With no clear leader, two albums stand out.
First is St Vincent, ahead by a margin so slim it
required a detailed look at figures previously never revealed by
our ADM chart-calculating computer. Her eponymous fourth LP gets a
flat 8.60, only 0.04 of a mark ahead of the nearest challenger. Her
albums have been outscoring each other with each release, and the
fourth is no different. Enough for a spot in our All Time Top 10,
for the record.

In second, with an 8.56, is the thirteenth album from New York
post-rockers Swans. The difference in scores
between the top two is obviously slim. Eight different sources gave
St Vincent 10/10, with only six for Swans. Both contenders also
receiving eleven scores of 9/10 or higher.

It certainly hasn't been a year defined by genre with the rest of
our top 10 ranging from experimental pop (Wild
Beasts), to extreme metal (Behemoth);
clever indie rock (The War On Drugs and
Sharon Van Etten) to alternative hip-hop
(Young Fathers); and lo-fi indie (Angel
Olsen) to electronica/techno/dream pop hybrid
(East India Youth). There is even an album of
ambient guitar pieces in there (Fennesz).
Everything but chart-friendly pop music, it seems.

Outside of the top 10 tells the same story. Arguably,
tUnE-YaRdS, EMA,
Beck and FutureIslands could be considered the only mainstream
releases in the top 30. It's the unexpected that are turning the
heads of our sources up and down the chart.

All the big names must be hoping that their stock has fallen so
low with the critics that, by 2015, nobody will expect anything
from them. "Underdogs", you could say...

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8.60

ST VINCENT

St Vincent

Bold, poised, precise without sounding sterile, St Vincent seems
to be a straightforward triumph. (The Guardian)

Van Etten chose to take production duties into her own hands.
The result is something so intimate, and so honest, that it at once
feels rude to listen to but at the same time impossible to tear
yourself away froms. (The Arts Desk)